Former Ripple CTO Stefan Thomas reveals loss of access to 7,002 BTC wallet

Former Ripple CTO and Coil CEO Stefan Thomas has two attempts left to regain access to the wallet containing 7,002 BTC. He told The New York Times.

According to Thomas, he lost the password sheet for his IronKey hardware wallet several years ago. With it he lost access to 7,002 BTC (~$236 million at the time of writing).

The former Ripple tech chief tried eight times to guess the password, but without success. After the tenth failed attempt, IronKey will lock the contents forever.

Thomas has kept his wallet in secure storage, hoping cryptographers will devise new ways to crack such passwords.

Chainanalysis data show that about $140 billion in bitcoin, or 20% of the existing 18.5 million BTC, is held in lost or forgotten wallets.

Earlier, a Reddit user restored access to a wallet containing 127 BTC that had been lost for several years.

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